Golden Gate Bridge suicides hit record high - 46

Updated 5:57 am, Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The families of people who jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge tell their stories and call for more measures to be put in place along the bridge to prevent suicides.

Media: San Francisco Chronicle

On Aug. 29, 17-year-old Gabri Aparicio drove to the Golden Gate Bridge and jumped to her death.

She became one of 46 people who took their lives at the landmark span last year, according to figures released Monday by a group advocating for more suicide barriers on the bridge. The group said the deaths were the most since the bridge opened in 1937.

The Larkspur high schooler, known as a caring overachiever, had sent out a questionnaire for a story she was working on for the school newspaper 30 minutes before her suicide, said her father, Nicolas Aparicio.

Though Gabri struggled with depression, he believes the questionnaire was proof that the teen wanted to live - and could have been saved. But she acted on an impulse, he said.

"If it wasn't for the easy access at the bridge, I still believe my daughter would be alive today," Aparicio said.

Aparicio joined dozens of other parents and family members of people who have jumped from the bridge for a news conference Monday morning outside San Francisco City Hall.

More than 1,600 people have committed suicide by jumping off the bridge since its inception. Gabri was one of 10 in August 2013, said Ken Holmes, a retired Marin County coroner and board member for the advocacy group, the Bridge Rail Foundation.

Holmes and the family members called for the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to put in the safety net they approved in 2008 but haven't installed due to funding. The bridge district needs $45 million to build the net.

"We believe that if you ask the individual to step away from their means of suicide, then you remove that temptation and you lower their risk of following through in the moment as well as in the future," said Meghan Freebeck, development director for San Francisco Suicide Prevention, a telephone crisis center. "The cost of a safety net is nothing compared to the cost of a person's life."

Aparicio said, "It is too late for Gabri. But this net would save lives, and it will save the eternal grief that families like us will have to live through."

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.